COM 440 / POLS 461: Mass Media Law - Fall 2015 (Cook): LexisNexis Academic - search help

To find a legal case in LexisNexis, click on the drop-down arrow at the end of the Look up a Legal Case box in the bottom center of the main LexisNexis Academic screen.

There are three ways to search for cases:

• By citation - use all three parts of a legal citation (volume, reporter, page).  For example:  533 U.S. 483
• By parties - use one or both party names
• By topic - searches the headnotes and cases for keywords

When you Shepardize® a case, LexisNexis provides a report showing every opinion where that case has been referenced, all treatments of the case, and whether or not the case is "good law."  If the case has been overruled, it is considered "bad law" and may no longer be cited as a legal precedent.

There are two ways to Shepardize® a case in  LexisNexis Academic.   

1) Enter the citation in the Shepard'® Citations screen, located in the Legal section of the Search By Content Type menu.

2) If you are already viewing a case,  click on the "flag" visible in the top left corner of cases to indicate different levels of treatment. Click directly on the flag to Shepardize® a case.

This code legend explains the flags used:

Online help is also available to assist you with interpreting your Shepardized® case.

Law Reviews are the scholarly journals for the law profession.  They can be useful for locating background information and analysis of a court case or legal topic.  Law review articles can be found by subject, case name, or popular name of a law.  These articles contain many footnotes with helpful references to related sources.  

To search law reviews, go to the Legal section within the Search by Content Type menu  and select Law Reviews.

Enter your keywords and use the Advanced Search to further customize your results.  

Click Apply to apply all of your search restrictions and search terms.  Search terms will appear inside the main search box, while restrictions will be listed below the search window.  

LexisNexis Academic is available to you to search both on and off campus.  If off campus, log in using your UW NetID and password.  The UW Gallagher Law Library subscribes to the full LexisNexis database, but use is restricted to faculty, staff, and students in the Law School.

Databases work by matching your search terms with the items in the database, in this case information about articles.  Generally when searching a library type database, link your search terms with the word AND. 

For example, to find articles related to journalists' protection of news sources, I might search for articles about this general topic or articles focusing on the case of Judith Miller.  I should also consider other related terms including synonyms. So I might do searches on:

• journalists AND sources
• journalists AND "anonymous sources"
• journalis* AND "shield law"
• "judith miller" AND sources
• joutnalist* AND confidential* AND source*
• "journalistic privilege"

Searching is a bit of an art so be creative and use a variety of search terms and strategies in order to find the best articles on your topic.

Remember the Information (Publication) Cycle - it takes time for subjects to appear in scholarly articles and books.  Depending on the newness of your topic, you may not find scholarly sources on your exact topic.